How to choose a career at 16 and become happy
“Go to study, where I will go on points..,” “..for a company with a friend...” or “to a university that is closer to home...”
Often a teenager, ahead of whom the graduation class, the exam and admission argues this way. Parents, unknowingly, support this way of thinking. Or just tacitly agree, saying it's your choice.
The Punkt B psychologist explains why it is not necessary to support such thoughts as a child to decide on a profession, and why career guidance tests are not assistants.
The right choice of profession is the key to high motivation in work and professional success. And an unsuccessful decision leads to the fact that the university remains unfinished, earnings are low, and sometimes there is a complete burnout.
Natalia Serpionova, through the experience of her clients, was repeatedly convinced of this. Among her regular clients and members of psychotherapeutic groups, there are almost no people in love with their business.
What difficulties do teenagers face when deciding how to go to study:
lack of information about professions, what and how to teach in universities in Russia and abroad;
• Lack of readiness of most students to make independent decisions;
Not knowing the answer to the question “Who am I and what do I want in the future?”
To help the student to cope with these difficulties and choose a dream profession is the task of parents. It is necessary to start with the search for information about universities, specialties, admission conditions. But this is only the first stage of career guidance of a high school student. Next, a specialist should be involved in the process.
In schools, career guidance work with high school students has long been conducted, but it is limited to tests and does not work in modern conditions.
This is confirmed by the results of research and the collected statistics: 50%+ of the working-age population of Russia does not work in the profession indicated in the diploma. And the practical benefit of testing for career guidance is noted only by 21% of respondents.
In Europe, the United States and other developed countries, they have already realized the need to work with schoolchildren on choosing a future specialty in a consulting format. And interviews on this topic with specialists are mandatory for all high school students.
According to Natalia Serpionova, the time of choosing a specialty as a growing child can become one of the happiest in life.
Here we need some help from parents:
• begin career guidance work 2-3 years before graduation;
• Give the child maximum opportunities for self-determination.
And, of course, treat it with the utmost seriousness and love, because it is about the future of your child.
Gregory Willson
